The Rage 2 stuff they showed tonight and the Rage 2 thing they were kinda forced to show earlier due to leaks feel like they're taken from two different games. Quite an odd tonal clash there which I wonder how the game itself will handle. But hey, Andrew WK.

Getting new non-numbered Doom and Wolfenstein semi-sequel-y spinoffish games at the same time is nice and well-timed considering how well both those reboots have been going for 'em so far. The Wolfenstein thing in particular looks really cool 'cause of it's sorta wildly different characters and timeline placement.

ESO and that CCG thing feel like really hard sells at the conference level for anyone who isn't already invested.

I never played the new Prey but now with all that new free content coming in I feel like I probably should.

Fallout Shelter is a good fit for the Switch. I'm surprised it wasn't on the PS4 already but it's cool that it's there now. Free is free y'all. Three years in though, I wonder if it'll get fresh content for those new platform launches and F76 tie-ins.

Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI both announced via 15-second titlecards is kinda funny. It's nice to know that Starfield actually exists though considering how long that name has been floating around. If it's pretty much Bethesda's take on a Mass Effect-sized science fiction RPG then I'm probably onboard immediately. Plus I wonder how long people will be pouring over the ESVI reveal trying to figure out the setting. Both those games are probably 2019/2020 at the earliest. ESVI would be a great PS5 launch title and it feels like the timing probably lines up.

Of course, Fallout 76 was the headliner here. It looks different enough from the mental image invoked by "DayZ/Rust but Fallout" to be of interest and worthy of some cautious optimism instead of the usual soul-sucking internet cynicism, but I kinda want all the details just to be sure. They did a good job easing a lot of my concerns just with the words "softcore survival," which games like Rust absolutely 100% are not. All the four-player co-op gameplay they showed looked perfectly solid and no VATS is probably totally fine via the newer shooting tech they've been using since Fallout 4. If they tried to do this years ago in the F3/NV tech era, fuck that.

Falcon Critical wrote:Elder Scrolls Mobile does not have me excited at all.

Oh yeah, that thing. I have less than zero interest in even trying to play it on iOS/Android/VR devices but maybe I'll take a peek when they put out the PC or console versions. I thought it was funny how Todd Howard made a point to mention those versions are coming, even if Fallout Shelter ending up everywhere probably made that obvious.

$39 USD with Prime is pretty reasonable too. Steam version isn't listed yet (seems unlikely it'd be a Windows Store exclusive if the other PC Tales versions aren't) but I assume it'll carry the same or similar pricetag when it shows up.

Yup. As problematic as Amazon is, we're keeping Prime, so I'll get that lower price. Sucks, because I'd love to shun Amazon as much as I do Wal-Mart, but the benefits are too nice and Mike shares the account with me and doesn't want to axe it. I already brought the price increase up with him (which takes place in September for my account) and he's willing to keep that going. I wish they'd treat their employees better but the service is so convenient that this is the major capitalism crossroad for me...

I've never checked out the Devolver conferences and I always kinda think maybe I should start? But in my head I always picture them as long runaway live Tim & Eric sketches and I dunno if the reality could ever match that.

also jeez that Life is Strange prelude is out in like two weeks. Another prediction: it'll end with a title card a la LIFE IS STRANGE 2: COMING THIS FALL

(and hopefully not get pushed to February 2019 like seemingly everything else, yikes, that month is gonna be wild)

e: from their press release,

The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is the first step towards showing you the true potential of Life is Strange, and the possibilities of a diverse universe filled with interesting characters and stories to tell. With it, we have created a self-contained narrative experience that’s brimming with content – the deeper you dig, the more you will discover. While this demo is designed in the usual Life is Strange way and allows you plenty of time to explore everything, it is at the same time structurally different to previous entries. You will most likely see and discover new content on subsequent playthroughs which you might have previously missed. And there are some secrets that may very well take a coordinated group of fans to unravel…

We can’t wait for you to uncover the secrets of this adventure together as a community, and we’re really looking forward to reading all your theories about The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit and how it might relate to Life is Strange 2.

This bit almost gives me a PT vibe, though I doubt it'll be quite that involved. (JARETH! JARETH! JARETH!)

e: Austin on tonight's Waypoint podcast just compared Captain Spirit to Calvin & Hobbes and that's really getting to me on a number of levels.

the Steam page strongly implies that some of your choices in Captain Spirit will carry over to LiS2 so assuming there really is save data import I guess plan your platform choices accordingly.

Having not really been following 2077 too closely until recently (and there hasn't been a lot of material 'til now to follow, so) I didn't really know it was this tightly connected to the old tabletop RPG. So I wonder how many of those rules it'll carry over, if any.

Also it kinda makes me want a full-scale AAA Shadowrun should Harebrained/Paradox suddenly find themselves an extra $100 million to make it.

I missed the Square conference and part of the Ubi. Aside from Ubi's pirate game looking pretty good (though maybe faster-paced than I'd like from naval combat) I don't really have much to say about their stuff. I hear Beyond Good & Evil looked good so I'll look for that trailer later. The new Assassin's looks kinda alright as well I guess? Maybe a little rough around the edges in that gameplay demo, but the RPG character stuff is nice at least.

Oh, uh, and good on them for getting Starfox in their weird sci-fi toys-to-life game. That's probably exactly what they need to keep a concept like that afloat.

Huh, Square's showcase was kind of a big ball of nothin', huh. Mostly stuff we saw earlier at the other conferences - Tomb Raider, Just Cause, Kingdom Hearts, Captain Spirit, though the deeper dive on Just Cause was good - plus some new Dragon Quest thing and... whatever that weird-ass Quiet Man thing was. Yikes. What was thaaaat

...I guess that new FFXIV content was all XII-related? They had one of the XII battle themes running under that whole segment and what looked like XII character art. I think they already had Ivalice stuff in there but I ain't complaining if they're adding more, should I eventually play XIV, anyway.

No VII-R material anywhere makes me think that thing is still years away and/or going to make some kinda appearance at the Sony conference.

Naughty Dog seems to be getting better and better at the character stuff and pretty much everything in that dance sequence was really nicely done, subtle, sweet, and effective.

The rest, though... while a technical marvel as always, just kinda seems to be doubling down all the way on dreary and oppressive misery, kinda like a lot of the story setup in that Division demo earlier on, which is something I totally don't need in 2018. Yeah, that's The Last of Us, I guess, that's its world. But nah, I'm good. A setting like that is kinda everywhere now. Give me way more of that cute and chill shindig and less of... everything else.

Control looks great. I have no idea what it is. Event Horizon + Psi Ops? I dunno. Always dig MC Escher-ass environmental design in video games though.

I'm not a Resident Evil guy but somewhere in Florida I'm sure Thor is stoked

This is the third Kingdom Hearts trailer thing they've shown so far at this E3 and I'm getting that Louise Belcher twitch in my eye and I dunno how much more of this I can taaaaake maaake iiiit stooooopppp

So, it's up Nintendo to knock it out of the park. I liked Sony's games, but the conference itself was rough.

Edit: I really hope Tsushima has the minimalistic HUD, like shown in the trailer. Might be difficult to do an effective tutorial, but if they can pull it off, it will be gorgeous. Mad points if they can work the tutorial into the game/story in a way where no additional HUD is needed. Doable, but not easy.

Rough, and... weeeeird. Such odd pacing, abrupt cuts between locations, just... literally and figuratively all over the place. They should've just stuck everything in that first venue, even if it was just a super weird standing-room-only thing, at least it looked nice.

It was the strangest press event I've seen from Sony probably since the PS3 days. Like, we knew it was gonna be smaller than usual going in, and they even straight-up said at one point "don't expect anything too big here," but the flow of it was just... way off. A jumble.

Yeah, I'm super happy about Vesperia. Also I really should play Berseria before then. I... wonder how much the Tales games have changed in the last ten years, and I wonder if Vesperia rerelease will include any altered gameplay systems from the newer stuff.

All that said about Sony's weird night, they did have one of the three most impressive demos this year for my money in Ghosts of Tsushima, at least from a "hey this looks super cool and different for a big-ass project" kinda aesthetic perspective. My list changes if I roll in some of the indies and whatever Nintendo has for us tomorrow morning.

The big three is now...

In no particular order.

Tsushima is absolutely a game I kinda wanna play in Japanese with my TV on black and white for that authentic Kurosawa experience. After I play it once normally, of course. Its use of colour is quite nice, especially compared to not-Tenchu and what I imagine Nioh 2 will end up looking like.